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MassDOT

New law protects ‘vulnerable’ road users

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Gov. Charlie Baker has agreed to a new law aimed at making roads safer for “vulnerable users” such as bicyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders and anyone else who is not in a vehicle.

Baker signed the bill (H 5103) Sunday after it gained momentum during the quiet informal sessions that have been held since formal sessions ended on Aug. 1.

The legislation calls for larger vehicles to be equipped with lateral protective devices, additional mirrors and backup cameras. It also requires officials to report information about crashes involving vulnerable road users and allows municipalities to petition to modify speed limits on state highways within their borders.

Baker in September returned the bill to the Legislature with amendments while also expressing support at the time for several components of the bill. The House and Senate rejected the governor’s amendments, but made further changes (S 3162) to the bill last week before returning it.

Sen. William Brownsberger has learned firsthand about the topic of the bill by riding his bike from his home in Belmont to his office at the State House. He celebrated the bill’s re-enactment on Dec. 27.

“I’m so glad we could get it to Governor’s desk again,” Brownsberger wrote on his website. “I feel the final bill is as strong as what we originally submitted: It will save lives on the roads.”

The bill broadly defines a vulnerable road user as either “a pedestrian, including a person engaged in work upon a way or upon utility facilities along a way or engaged in the provision of emergency services within the way” or “a person operating a bicycle, handcycle, tricycle, skateboard, roller skates, in-line skates, non-motorized scooter, wheelchair, electric personal assistive mobility device, horse, horse-drawn carriage, motorized bicycle, motorized scooter, or other micromobility device, or a farm tractor or similar vehicle designed primarily for farm use.” It also authorizes the registrar of motor vehicles to designate “other categories.”

In passing a vulnerable road user, according to the bill, “the operator of a motor vehicle shall pass at a safe distance of not less than 4 feet and at a reasonable and proper speed.”

The legislation further states that if it is not possible to overtake a vulnerable user or other vehicle at a safe distance in the same lane, “the overtaking vehicle shall use all or part of an adjacent lane, crossing the centerline if necessary, when it is safe to do so and while adhering to the roadway speed limit.”

The law requires the Department of Transportation to “erect and maintain signage along public ways necessary to notify operators of motor vehicles of the requirements for passing a vulnerable user from a safe distance.”

It was one of 10 bills that the outgoing governor signed Sunday.

MassDOT looks to put a ‘high performance’ charge in EV stations

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The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is assembling a “high performance unit” that will kickstart the state’s efforts to design and install additional charging stations for electric vehicles.

The new unit will be under the direction of a “senior staffer” within MassDOT for the near term, and will work toward advancing the work that was authorized by this year’s $11.3 billion transportation bond bill, according to state Rep. William Straus, who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation.

The bill allocated $225 million for electric vehicle charging and alternative fueling programs, including $50 million for the Mass EVIP Direct Current Fast Charging program and $25 million for RTA charging infrastructure grants, Straus said.

“This is especially important work to get moving on, and is clearly among the higher priority efforts expressed on behalf of the Healey-Driscoll administration,” Straus wrote in an email to his House and Senate colleagues that was shared with the Herald.

“In this case, a single unit pursuing capital projects benefiting Mass Highway, the T and our RTAs is something positive.”

This new MassDOT unit is needed, Straus said, because transportation involvement in EV infrastructure and other capital programs “transcends the existing line agencies” under the secretary of transportation.

He said outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration was encouraged to think in terms of infrastructure projects that benefit climate response and future capital project needs in overlapping areas that would benefit the highway department, MBTA, RTAs and aeronautics.

Outgoing Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler addressed this issue during a November MassDOT Board of Directors meeting, where he shared a presentation slide that listed potential programs where MassDOT could provide assistance to the MBTA, Straus said.

At the meeting, it was discussed that MassDOT could assist with issues such as electric vehicle and charging stations, Commuter Rail electrification, bridge repair and rehab and ADA improvements “by establishing a new special project unit” within DOT to pursue those capital projects, Straus said.

Straus said he was told by Tesler that a “high performance unit” has been established to advance the work needed for the EV charging station design and installation funded in the transportation bond bill.

MassDOT spokesperson Jacquelyn Goddard said the unit is “in the process of being formed,” and more information will be released “later.”

“MassDOT is reviewing a number of options on how to best deliver multi-agency bond bill projects such as EV charging stations,” Goddard said. “Decisions are expected to be made in the coming weeks.”

BOSTON, MA. January 01: An EV car charges on in a parking lot at 490 Center Street in Jamaica Plains section of Boston, Mass. (Photo by Jim Michaud/ Boston Herald)
An EV charges up in a parking lot on Center Street in Jamaica Plain. (Photo by Jim Michaud/ Boston Herald

Maura Healey makes transportation secretary pick

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Gina Fiandaca, Boston’s former transportation commissioner, will join Maura Healey’s Cabinet next month as transportation secretary, a post that will put her in charge of helping to turn around the MBTA and addressing traffic congestion and public transit problems that threaten the region’s growth.

With less than two weeks to go until their inauguration, Healey and Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Driscoll on Friday tapped Fiandaca to lead the secretariat responsible for infrastructure maintenance, public transit, roadway safety and other major issues commuters face on a daily basis. She’ll be joined by former MassDOT and MBTA board member Monica Tibbits-Nutt as transportation undersecretary.

Fiandaca will return to Massachusetts from Texas, where she has served as the assistant city manager of Austin since 2019. In that role, Fiandaca manages Austin Transportation and other infrastructure and mobility departments with a budget of more than $1 billion and close to 3,000 employees, according to Healey’s team.

Healey’s team credited Fiandaca’s work on Project Connect, which will build a light rail system in Austin.

According to Healey’s transition team, Fiandaca worked as a transportation clerk for the City of Boston while in college. She rose to director of the city’s Office of the Parking Clerk for nearly eight years before serving as transportation commissioner for four years during former Mayor Martin Walsh’s administration, during which the department released a 15-year, $4.74 billion “Go Boston 2030” transportation plan.

“Massachusetts residents need to be able to rely on our trains, buses and roads to get them where they need to go safely and on time. This is key not only for people’s daily lives, but also for the strength of our businesses and economy,” Fiandaca said in a statement. “I’m honored that Governor-elect Healey and Lieutenant Governor-elect Driscoll have placed their faith in me to lead the team that will deliver these critical services and am thrilled by the opportunity to continue my career in Massachusetts.”

Former Boston Transportation Department Commissioner Tom Tinlin, who promoted Fiandaca to parking clerk and served as state highway administrator when she led the city’s transportation department, said Fiandaca will bring a familiarity with “what it’s like to be an important cog in the transportation bureaucracy.”

“It’s not just an important appointment. I think it’s the right appointment,” Tinlin told the News Service. “Gina brings the management experience where she’s actually managed people in a large, diverse workforce. When you think about the MassDOT secretary’s job, that organization is made up of all these different transportation divisions.”

“Here’s a woman, in a male-dominated field, who has worked her way up the ladder,” he added. “She’s earned everything she’s ever gotten.”

Citing her start in parking, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney said Fiandaca “knows transportation from the bottom up” and has the academic and administrative credentials associated with running a large organization.

“I think having come up the way she did will serve us well,” Rooney said in an interview. “She gets it. She knows the city well. She knows not only moving around in the city, but moving in and out of the city both on roadways and on transit. She’s a good choice.”

Rooney added, “From a business community perspective, being in a hot city like Austin, she appreciated the role transportation plays in business and commerce.”

During her tenure in Boston, Fiandaca was a supporter of connecting the MBTA’s Red and Blue Lines, a project the Baker administration placed on the T’s long-term to-do list, and boosting commuter rail train frequency along the Fairmount Corridor — issues that will soon be under her purview as transportation secretary.

In 2019, Fiandaca wrote to T General Manager Steve Poftak alongside then-Boston Chief of Streets Chris Osgood warning about possible impacts of proposed fare hikes that ultimately took effect.

“Currently, you have been clear about the costs: $32 million in additional payments by riders and a 1.3% loss in ridership,” Fiandaca and Osgood wrote at the time. “That 1.3% loss in ridership is a reduction of roughly 4.8 million trips. Those will become either trips not taken or, more likely, trips taken by car; this will cause either a loss in economic activity or an increase in congestion and emissions. Neither are acceptable.”

Fiandaca will succeed Jamey Tesler, who has held the secretary’s post for the Baker administration on an interim basis and then permanently following the departure of Stephanie Pollack in January 2021.

She takes over at a time when the MBTA faces federal orders to fix glaring safety problems, looming budget gaps, a potent workforce shortage and a ridership base still depleted from pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the region’s notorious roadway congestion has returned in full force, frustrating drivers and spewing emissions.

“We can’t have a functioning economy without a functioning transportation system. Gina Fiandaca gets that — and she has decades of experience managing large transportation departments and prioritizing safety, reliability and accessibility,” Healey said. “I’m excited to welcome her home to Massachusetts and look forward to the important work she will do alongside our partners in business and labor to deliver results.”

Tibbits-Nutt, the executive director of the 128 Business Council transportation management group, since last month has co-chaired the Healey transition team’s “how we get around” policy committee.

She previously served on the board of directors of MassDOT and as vice chair of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board, which oversaw the T from 2015 until it dissolved in 2021.

“Governor-elect Healey and Lieutenant Governor-elect Driscoll are committed to building a transportation system that works for every resident in every region of the Commonwealth, and I’m excited to help this administration deliver on that commitment,” Tibbits-Nutt said in a statement provided by the transition team. “Gina and I share a vision for transforming transportation options throughout the Commonwealth, and together we will prioritize transparency, safety, equity and climate resiliency.”

Tibbits-Nutt often used her position on the MBTA board to advocate for rethinking how the agency is financed and call out lackluster bus reliability. She joined her colleagues on the panel in a 2021 vote that instructed MBTA staff to draft plans for a low-income fare program, which the T has long studied but hesitated to implement broadly.

DPU oversight should shift to MBTA advisory board, ex-transit leaders say

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Two ex-transit leaders are advocating for a stronger MBTA advisory board that could take over safety oversight of the T from the Department of Public Utilities.

Given its staffing shortage and current structure, the DPU is “in no way adequate” to deal with the challenges facing the T, said Fred Salvucci, a former Massachusetts secretary of transportation, during a Tuesday MBTA advisory board forum.

The DPU, which has been tasked with MBTA safety oversight for decades, was found to be ineffective in that role as part of a federal investigation into both agencies this summer.

“There are other places you could put it, but I think there’s a big role for expertise here,” Salvucci said. “I would take a hard look at putting it in the advisory board.”

“But whoever gets the responsibility, if they don’t have the funding to staff up, then you’re just setting up a fall guy,” he added.

Joe Aiello, a former chairman of the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, agreed, saying that placing the responsibility in the hands of a stronger advisory board — which includes leadership from 172 MBTA communities — “would have merit.”

He noted the DPU was unresponsive when the FMCB commissioned the 2019 safety review panel report, which looked into MBTA operations, and was found to be “passive” about its oversight function again in the FTA’s final report.

Whatever entity takes on that role, Aiello said salaries need to be higher, like what’s seen with the MWRA and Massport, to ensure employees with transit safety expertise are hired and retained.

All three ex-transit leaders on the panel agreed that placing the oversight function in MassDOT would not be a good option, due to the secretariat’s direct line to the governor.

Dan Grabauskas, former transportation secretary and MBTA general manager, suggested that oversight could be assigned to a strong, but independent place in government, such as the inspector general or auditor’s office.

If that function were to remain with the DPU, Grabauskas said one solution could be a new appointee with a term limit, which would give that person the freedom to call out problems at the T that may be embarrassing to the next administration.

“That’s what we’re all really dancing around,” he said. “Here is how you make sure that the people we need to tell the truth can feel that they can do that without the interference of politics.”

A stronger MBTA advisory board was a common theme among the ex-transit leaders, who said it should regain its budget vetoing authority, which was stripped by the state legislature in 2009, to get T finances back on track and make better investments.

However, Andrew Bagley, vice president for policy and research at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, cautioned that the feds would still likely be the authority dictating MBTA spending for the next several years.

“They are going to have input in changes in both the operating and capital budgets predicated on their priorities they’ve established in the safety requirements,” Bagley said.

And if those directives aren’t met, the FTA can withhold federal funding from the T, he said.

Ramp and lane closures planned for Route 2 eastbound

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FITCHBURG — According to the state Department of Transportation, overnight ramp and lane closures will be implemented on Route 2 eastbound Tuesday through Thursday during the hours of 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. the following morning.

The closures will impact exit 94 (Narrows/Depot Road) and exit 95 (Route 31) but the exits will not be closed at the same time.

When the Route 2 eastbound exit 94 (Narrows/Depot Road) off-ramp is closed, traffic will be directed to continue on Route 2 eastbound and use exit 95 (Route 31) in order to access Route 2 westbound back to exit 94.

When the exit 94 on-ramp to Route 2 eastbound is closed, traffic will be directed to take Route 2 westbound and use exit 92 (Route 2A/Route 140), to reverse direction to access Route 2 eastbound.

When the Route 2 eastbound exit 95 (Route 31) off-ramp is closed, traffic will be directed to continue on Route 2 eastbound and take exit 98 (Merriam Avenue) and follow the detour signage in place to reverse direction onto Route 2 westbound to access exit 95.

When the exit 95 on-ramp to route 2 eastbound is closed, traffic will be directed to use Route 2 westbound and take exit 94 (Narrows/ Depot Road) to reverse direction to access Route 2 eastbound.

For more information on traffic conditions, MassDOT encourages travelers to:

• Dial 511 and select a route to hear real-time conditions.

• Visit mass511.com, a website which provides real-time traffic and incident advisory information and allows users to subscribe to text and email alerts for traffic conditions.

• Follow MassDOT on Twitter @MassDOT to receive regular updates on road and traffic conditions.

• Download MassDOT’s GoTime mobile app and view real-time traffic conditions before setting out on the road.

Heavy traffic expected for Labor Day weekend amid Orange Line shutdown

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Residents planning to hit the road for Labor Day weekend are urged to plan ahead, as Orange Line bus diversion routes and local road closures have led to heavier than average congestion on state highways.

“I think as we all know this is typically a very, very busy weekend,” said MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver in a Friday press call.

“We saw some extra volume within the Thursday commute overall, but especially in the afternoon, and like most holiday weekends, we are expecting that heavy travel times are going to continue.”

Gridlock that has been seen on interstates and primary routes, such as I-93, I-95, and Routes 1 and IA during the Orange and partial Green Line shutdowns — as motorists heed advice to avoid diversion routes — will also tie up roadways this weekend, Gulliver said.

Heavy congestion is expected on Friday afternoon, when many people begin their trips, and late Monday afternoon when they start making their way home, particularly on roads out of Cape Cod and those that link out-of-state travelers back to Massachusetts.

To mitigate traffic impacts, Gulliver said MassDOT has shut down some key construction sites and is shifting to a holiday schedule for carpool and swing lanes on highways.

Post-Labor Day travel is typically busy as well, he said, as people adjust to their new work and school schedules, but questions remain around what a post-COVID daily commute will look like in a largely remote world.

Summer traffic volumes are expected to continue this fall, but different drivers will be on the road, such as daily commuters rather than people traveling in and out of the city for leisure, and more buses and students to mark the start of the school year.

“We expect that there’s going to be an adjustment period over the next couple of weeks as everyday drivers return and start to settle into a new pattern,” Gulliver said. “This is something we have experienced in past years, but again with post-COVID, it’s not as predictable as it used to be.”

For example, he said many commuters have opted to travel during the midday and late afternoon hours to avoid the traditional peak times of morning and afternoon, which has spread out the volume of traffic.

“It’s a trend that has been making travel much, and commuting especially, much more manageable than it used to be,” Gulliver said. “It’s one of the congestion techniques that we had been really pushing pre-COVID that we hope is going to continue post-COVID.”